


Last Goodbyes

by AgentStannerShipper



Category: Torchwood
Genre: M/M, Time Travel, but also a hint of angst, jack's real name (i think?), shameless flirting from a head in a jar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 14:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12558948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentStannerShipper/pseuds/AgentStannerShipper
Summary: The Face of Boe falls through the rift and into Torchwood...and if you ask Ianto Jones, he seems kind of familiar...





	Last Goodbyes

**Author's Note:**

> Long-time Torchwood fan, first Torchwood fic. Not my best writing, but I had to get the feels out.
> 
> Not betaed or Brit-picked, so let me know if there are any issues.
> 
> Based off [ this post on tumblr.](http://iant0jones.tumblr.com/post/163576253594/i-wouldve-liked-an-episode-of-tw-or-dw-when-the)

“Jack?” Ianto asked, his voice surprisingly calm considering the circumstances. “Why is there a giant head in a jar in the middle of the Hub?”

Jack leaned against the railing, his hands in his pockets and his hip cocked just so. “Rift alert woke me up last night,” he explained. “I came up to investigate, and he was sitting there. He must have fallen through.”

“He?”

“Yep.” Jack popped the ‘p’ and sauntered over next to Ianto. “Not exactly a chatty fellow, but he told me to call him Face.”

“Face?” Ianto raised his eyebrows.

Jack shrugged, “Honestly? I’ve heard stranger names.”

Ianto tried not to be unsettled by the fact that the head in the jar...Face...was watching him intently. He shifted from foot to foot, and those huge eyes clearly followed the movement. He was distracted when Jack’s hand slid over his shoulder, and he turned his head to murmur, “He’s a bit creepy.”

Jack's face was only inches from Ianto's, and his blue eyes sparkled playfully. “I think he’s kind of cute.”

Ianto rolled his eyes, “You would.”

Jack leered at him, but he was cut off by Gwen’s voice, “Jack? What the hell is that?”

***

Gwen and Owen agreed with Ianto’s assessment. “I don’t like how he watches us,” Gwen shuddered. “And all those tentacles.”

“He seems to have a thing for you, Tea Boy,” Owen stabbed a pen in his direction. “Better be careful, or he might use his giant brain to take over your body. Bet those tentacles are for-”

“Don’t you all have work to be doing?” Jack called from his office, effectively breaking up the conversation before Ianto had to decide if he was going to switch out Owen’s coffee for decaf again.

Tosh, who had been listening quietly from her station, glanced back at Face and said, “I don’t think he’s that strange. We’ve certainly seen weirder.”

“Weirder than a head with tentacles floating in a jar?” Owen muttered. “I don’t think so.”

“Ignore them,” Tosh called over her shoulder to Face. Ianto came up to stand beside her, and she looked up at him, “He does seem to like you, though.”

Ianto looked back at the jar. Face was watching him again. “How can you tell?”

_I don’t mean you any harm, Ianto Jones._

Ianto froze, his eyes widening. He glanced at Tosh, but she was absorbed in her work station. Ianto took a step towards the tank, “What did you just say?”

_I’m not going to hurt you._

The voice sounded old and a little rough, but it was definitely echoing inside his head. “You’re telepathic,” Ianto murmured. “That’s how you were talking to Jack earlier.”

Face nodded, his wrinkled lips curling into what Ianto supposed might have been a smile.

Ianto knelt in front of the tank, ignoring the fact that he hadn’t mopped the floor this week and all sorts of dirt was probably spreading across his trousers. “Where are you from?”

_Everywhere._

“That’s pretty broad. Could you be more specific?”

_Can you keep a secret?_

Ianto couldn’t stop his eyes from sliding to Jack’s office, or his mind from helpfully bringing up the very long list of secrets he had or was fighting to keep from his boss/sort-of-boyfriend. Lisa. The fact that he was hopelessly in love with Jack. Any number of smaller things he’d rather not come to light. “I’m good at secrets,” he said eventually.

_I know._

Ianto frowned, “What do you mean, you know?”

_I can feel your mind. It’s very guarded._

“You mean you can read my mind?”

Face shook his head minutely. _I can feel it when I speak to you, but I cannot read it._

Ianto wasn’t entirely convinced, but he figured he’d put his trust in worse places than a telepathic giant head. “Alright,” he said. “What sort of secret do you want me to keep?”

_You have the deepest eyes I’ve ever seen._

Ianto blinked, “I beg your pardon?”

_There’s so much hidden behind them. Such a pretty blue to hide so much pain._

“What are you-”

_I am very old, Ianto Jones. I have lived for billions of years old. I have seen so much of this universe._

“Uh-huh,” Ianto muttered. “And you’re philosophizing about my eyes. Just another day at Torchwood.”

There was a rumble in his mind, like a laugh, and Face blinked slowly at him like a cat. _I will tell you my name if you promise not to tell Jack._

“Alright.” Ianto was sure it wasn’t the first time an alien had wanted to conceal their identity from the enigmatic (and slightly notorious) captain, and it wouldn’t be the last. And if Face had lived for billions of years, there was a very good chance he and Jack had crossed paths at some point or another.

_I am the Face of Boe._

“Really?” Ianto fought not to snort. “That’s your full name?”

_It is the only name that matters anymore. You can call me Javic, if you like. But not around Jack._

“Does he know you?” Ianto asked.

Javic fell silent, and Ianto looked up as a shadow fell across him. Jack grinned down at him, “Making nice with our guest?”

“He’s more interesting than I initially thought,” Ianto admitted, getting to his feet.

“Well, your conversation with him will have to wait,” Jack said. “Tosh thinks she’s found something that came through the Rift at the same time as Face here. Might be related. Might even help us get him back where he came from.”

Ianto gave one last glance to Javic, who was still watching him, only now that Ianto had gotten a good look he could see there was something strange, almost sad, about his eyes. He turned away, “After you, sir.”

He was halfway to the door when Javic’s voice echoed in his head. _Nice suit._

Ianto nearly tripped. He caught himself on the railing, and resolutely refused to look back at the giant head in a jar. He marched out after Jack.

***

“-and it turns out, it’s made from the same metal as your tank,” Tosh said, gesturing animatedly in her excitement.

Ianto passed her the cup of coffee and sat down on the floor next to her with his own. “Hello,” he greeted Javic.

_Is that coffee?_

Ianto nodded and took a sip. Tosh was still chattering away, and Ianto wondered if Javic was speaking to her even as he held a mental conversation with Ianto or if he had also stopped listening to their resident tech genius.

_I miss coffee._

Ianto raised his eyebrows, catching the tail end of Tosh’s excited ramble, “-and while I'm pretty sure it won't get you home, it's still fascinating. I'm going to enjoy studying it.” She glanced back and forth between Ianto and Javic, and then stood, “Thanks for the coffee, Ianto.”

He nodded absently as she walked away, then asked Javic, “Why can't you have coffee?”

_This form is not conducive to eating. But I did love coffee. There's nothing better than good coffee served by a sexy man in a suit._

Ignoring the fact that the word ‘sexy’ just sounded wrong coming from an ancient floating head, Ianto bit his lip, two different questions warring in his mind. First, he asked, “So, this wasn't always your form, then?”

_No._

“Javic?” Ianto said slowly.

_Yes?_

Ianto stared at the giant head and lost his nerve. Instead of the question he really wanted to ask, an answer he already had but wanted confirmed, he said, “If you’ve lived for billions of years, you must have seen some incredible things.”

_I have._

“Tell me about them?”

And Javic did. He told Ianto about time, stretching out in both directions, the birth and the end of the universe. He told Ianto about waterfalls of fire and ice crystals that sang when the wind blew through them and pink oceans and yellow skies and trees so delicate that a single touch would crumble them to ash. He told Ianto about life, so much more than the weevils and other drips of alien life slinking through the rift, millions of worlds with billions of life forms, civilizations he watched rise and fall.

_Life is precious, Ianto Jones. The more of it you see, the more you will realize that._

“You really have seen everything,” Ianto murmured. He ran his finger along the cool glass of the tank, and one of Javic’s tendrils followed it idly. “Do you ever have any regrets?”

_Just one. You live long enough, and you learn to let go of regret. Things have happened and do happen and will continue to happen, and to dwell on the past for too long is to miss the present as it goes by. I was impatient once, and full of guilt. It took millennia for me to let go of the past._

“And you have?” Ianto asked. “Let go of the past, I mean.”

_I have. But I do not forget it._

“So what’s your one regret, then?” Ianto asked. “If you’ve let go of the past, if everything is behind you, what’s the one thing that can still make a billion-year-old...being want to go back and change something?”

_I know I can’t change the past. Meddling in timelines...this is dangerous._

“You sound like Jack,” Ianto said. He felt the corners of his lips quirk up with his permission, and Javic’s laugh rumbled in his head again.

_I would not change the past, no matter how deeply I wish too. But...my one regret...was not being bolder._

Ianto cocked his head, his brow furrowing, “‘Not being bolder?’ What does that mean?”

_Not that you would know, looking at me now, but once I was brash. Cocky. Impatient. I thought I could take on the world. But where it mattered most, I hesitated. Time and time again, I hesitated, and then I lost everything and it was too late._

“What is ‘everything’ to an ancient head in a jar?”

_Do you have a person, Ianto Jones, who is your entire world?_

Ianto opened his mouth, and then closed it again. “Yes,” he finally admitted. ‘But you knew that, didn’t you?’ he thought to himself.

_So did I. And I didn’t tell him. He was my entire world, and I didn’t tell him._

“And that’s your greatest regret.”

Javic nodded. Ianto was about to say something else when a hand landed on his shoulder. He startled and looked up. Jack grinned down at him, “Come on, Ianto. It’s late. Say goodnight to Face here, and go home.”

“Yes, sir,” Ianto said. He stood up, his stiff muscles protesting at the moment, and said, “Goodnight, Face.” He rested his hand on the top of the container, and though as hard as he could, ‘Goodnight, Javic.’

He was almost out the door when the faint response echoed in his head.

_Goodbye, Ianto Jones._

***

When Ianto came into work the next morning, Javic’s tank was gone. Jack caught him looking, “Our friend disappeared sometime last night. I guess the rift sucked him back up.”

“It must have done,” Ianto murmured, still staring at the spot. “Jack?”

“Yeah?”

Ianto looked up at him, and his voice caught in his throat. Jack frowned, “You alright, Ianto?”

Ianto looked away and cleared his throat, “I’m fine, sir. Need anything?”

“A fresh pot of coffee would be amazing.”

“Yes, sir,” Ianto said.


End file.
